Community Policing Is A Fast Growing Necessity For The Future

Policing is a very difficult, complex and dynamic field of endeavor that is always evolves as hard lessons teach us what we need to know about what works and what don’t work. There are three different Era’s in America’s policing: The Political Era, The Reform Era, and The Community Problem Solving Era. A lot has changed in the way that policing works over the years in the United States.

In cities and towns across the country, tragic deaths of citizens in confrontations with police have have spiked a wave of distrust for law enforcement. The bad perception for law enforcement is unfair to the officer’s who are dedicated, and mean well in their duties, yet unfortunately, it has created tension between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve. Due to the recent deaths and confrontations, reform proposals and new policies have been a national conversation to implement new initiatives to strengthen the bonds between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve. Although, confrontations between law enforcement and citizens in the community have spiked, the concept of community policing is not new. Throughout the years the philosophy of community policing has been to

When discussing how exposure to community policing can affect low economic neighborhoods, one must ask what is community policing? Miller, Hess, and Orthmann (2014) stated, it is a philosophy or orientation that emphasizes working proactively with citizens to reduce fear, solve crime-related problems, and prevent crime. Community policing can be a positive change in the community and for the law enforcement personnel that serves the community. An important concept to always remember is that the police are the community, and the community are the police (Miller et al., 2014). To successfully integrate this into police departments, we must examine several factors that have made police departments what they are today, what are ways to implement this new form of policing without resistance from law enforcement and citizens, and how community policing can affect the community and the work of law enforcement in the long run.

The Community Policing era has been one of the contemporary police activities in the last 30 years. It is more of a decentralized approach to reducing crime by involving the same officer in the same community on a long term basis, so residents will develop trust and then provide information and assistance to the officer. Community Policing does not replace motorized patrol or other police tactics but instead compliments them with community partnership and problem solving (Bailey, 2011).

Law Enforcement officers have one of the most critical jobs in the United States. Their lives are always on the line and they are of high regards. This means they cannot fail! The results of their jobs do not only depend on their actions but also on the people. What this means is the community has a huge role when it comes to solving crime. Though many people may not believe it, they are the key to a successful crime prevention community. The people of the United States don’t really understand both the positive and negative effects that community policing actually brings. Some may say it is very dangerous based on their experiences. Others may say it’s the best way to do away with crime. Today the two will be compared and put to test by true officers serving our country. The facts will be stated and questions will be answered. Let’s take a look at what community policing is really all about!

Law enforcement and the community that it serves should have a harmonious relationship that is built on the foundation of trust and protection. Often, the community relies on police officers to protect and serve, while in turn, police officers are dependent on the community to offer support and cooperation to serve the neighborhood efficiently. However, when there is no connection between the two, tension begins to form causing their relationship to deteriorate. If there is no communication between the police officers and the community, then law enforcement would not be able to serve or protect the neighborhood from crime adequately. For law enforcement agencies to properly serve their communities, new innovative policies need to be formed

Initiating community-oriented policing is about partnerships and building trust in communities between law enforcement and the citizens in the community (Bull, 2015). According to Bull (2015), community policing has shifted from a centralized bureaucratic command to a collaborative style of problem-solving crime and disorder through programs and activities within the community. To be effective, community policing requires the trust of the citizens. According to Schlosser, Cha-Jua, Valgoi, and Neville (2015), The Law Enforcement Code of Ethic states that the duties of a police officer are to serve humankind, safeguard lives and property, protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against

Community policing is one of the newer looks on law enforcement. Many people do not know exactly community policing is or how it works. It is used in many places around the world and has many elements needed to be successful. It varies from traditional policing with how they want to solve the problems in the community.

In the 1970s, big cities began using a method known as community policing which caught political attention with its positive outcomes. It began to be implemented in smaller communities with federal funding and studies showed that departments employing community policing jumped from 34% in 1997 to 64% in 1999 (Hickman & Reaves, 2003, p 506). Community policing appeals to the five key elements set forth by traditional policing; routine patrol, rapid response to calls for service, arrests, investigations, and law enforcement information sharing (Community Policing Dispatch, 2008). Routine Patrol is improved with community policing because it reduces fear with police presence and sets up preventative patrol in areas of high crime rates. Technology and

Community policing has been described in various ways, but there is a basic underlining element that defines the idea of it as a solidarity that is established at the foundation and built up from there between the people of the community and the officers that serve that community. While many agencies might pursue various ways to implement community policing within their sector, the idea that the people of that community are their customers more so than their enemies and vice versa, so that there is unity built between the two. For some officers this may not be so easily performed as they may view themselves as the arrestee not the mediator or community advocate (Clear, Hamilton, Jr., & Cadora, 2011). However, there are substantial arguments

. Tracing the history of Community policing, There are Compelling reasons why law enforcement leaders believe that time has come to alter the police and practice of their organization. These reasons are rooted in the history of policing and police research during the last quarter of a century in the changing nature of communities, in the shifting characteristics of crime and violence that affect these communities Throughout history individuals have been expected to follow the rules of the majority, the demands to control the behavior of individuals can be traced to the ancient times when the tribe, clan or family controlled the behavior of the individuals and had the responsibility to enforce its informal rules or customs.

How effective is community policing? Community policing has several different definitions. In this paper I will prove that community policing is effective by defining, community policing as the police and citizens coming together to create a safe community, stop crime and resolve problems and also urgently responding to the community. Throughout many years, the people’s view of community policing have remained the same. There are some valid causes as to why law enforcement leaders consider that it is time to change the way policing labors so that they are effectively helping the community. The way that community policing was trained in the past is not necessarily efficient in today’s society. For example, catastrophes in our communities continue to increase the need for security, citizens loose the feeling of protection and wellbeing, and this can be fixed by presenting advanced policing strategies. Law enforcement leaders are beginning to recognize that they must accept the responsibility for the safety of their communities. Community policing is as a law enforcement tactic enforced to progress a stronger connection between the police and the community.

One benefit of community policing is the reduction of crime. If police officers interact with people within a neighborhood, these individuals will be more willing to help officers whenever certain situations occur. Some officers are placed into environments where they don’t know that much information about the area, and are reluctant to learn about the area. Many officers go into an environment and demand respect, but this isn’t something that people will accept, especially if officers are coming into neighborhoods where police and residents have a bad relationship (Lasley, 1994). If officers treat people with respect, communicate with individuals, and help when situations occur such as robberies or other crimes then people within the community will be more willing to help

Community policing is a philosophical approach used in addressing the roots of crime, its phobia and other problems in the community by encouraging hands-on and solution based policing via a collaboration between the police and the community ensuring that they create a secure area with better conditions for growth. The concept is a modern strategy that motivates people to participate in the roles of a police voluntarily. Over the centuries, the participation of community members in police jobs kept changing. The research focuses on the evolution of the policing. The paper thus discusses the evolutional eras in policing namely: the political era, the reform era, and the community era.

Approaches of both community policing and traditional policing models differ in a variety of ways. The characteristics of the policing models are quite different from each other, and community based policing was considered laughable when suggested for the new approach in the early 1970s. Due to community policing’s new operating beliefs, new and unfamiliar expected officer behaviors, and that officers were being held legally responsible for their actions and inactions; the idea and implementation wasn’t widely accepted until 1980’s. Traditional policing was primarily dominated by rampant corruption and lawlessness that affected all levels of the police administration; therefore citizens had little trust if any, in the police officers of the time.